To Create 2,000 New Jobs, Fiat Chrysler Announced $1B Investment In US Manufacturing

In some encouraging news for the beleaguered American motor industry, Fiat Chrysler made an announcement that it intends to invest billion on U.S. manufacturing.

This money will go towards upgrading and modernizing plants in Ohio and Michigan. Best news of all is the investment will provide 2,000 new jobs. Now that is good news. The idea is to make the Warren, Michigan plant ready to produce pickup trucks that are currently being built in Mexico. They will be producing the Jeep Wagoneer as well as the Grand Wagoneer large SUVs.

The Toledo, Ohio plant will be fitted out to produce the new Jeep pickup. “The expansion of our Jeep lineup has been and continues to be the key pillar of our strategy,” Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne explained in the announcement. He went on to discuss export plans for SUVs and trucks.

“We will finally have the capacity to successfully penetrate markets other than the U.S. which have historically been denied product due to capacity constraints.” This is the second lot of good new to come out of the industry recently. Fiat Chrysler competitor Ford shared similar sentiments in an announcement made last Tuesday. Ford divulged that they plan to develop a $1.6 billion plant that was planned for Mexico and rather invest $700 million in an assembly plant in Michigan.

CEO Mark Fields pointed out that the decision would have been the same irrespective of the presidential election outcome, He did however go on to say that the “pro-growth policies” of the president elect gave them greater confidence. Trump has spoken out about the number of auto manufacturers basing their manufacturing in Mexico and has urged them to invest and develop the U.S. plants rather.

In light of the two recent announcements, it can not be denied he has already made some significant headway. Shortly after the Ford announcement on Tuesday, Trump tweeted from General Motors with threats of “big border tax” for cars produced in Mexico to be sold into the US market. In less inspiring news, the recent announcement by Fiat Chrysler came after a release the previous day that they will be recalling 100,000 mostly older trucks and SUVs to replace Takata airbag inflators.